Tag Archives: dissection

Lights, Camera, Action for the Great White Shark

4 July 2011 – 3.46pm

On Tuesday 28 June, the Great White Shark debuted on his first film set, defrosted and ready for action.

White shark dissection 28 June 2011

White shark dissection 28 June 2011, Jean-Claude Stahl - Te Papa

Andrew Stewart, Collection Manager Fishes managed the team in preparing the shark for its fixing process and dissection with great excitement of what could be discovered.

White shark dissection 28 June 2011, Jean-Claude Stahl - Te Papa

White shark dissection 28 June 2011, Jean-Claude Stahl - Te Papa

Over the course of the day, a full set of measurements are taken, his stomach is opened, contents identified and he will be prepared for this 4 month fixing in formalin/ water.

White shark dissection 28 June 2011, Jean-Claude Stahl - Te Papa

With help from our great partners, GNS Science, sample tissue from the skin and liver have been removed to under go Stable Isotope Analysis which will provide a snapshot in time of what the shark has been eating.

And while all of this is happening, the Te Papa Picture Library Team, Becky Masters and Rebecca Loud, have organised to have the whole process captured on film.

White shark dissection 28 June 2011, Jean-Claude Stahl - Te Papa

White shark dissection 28 June 2011, Jean-Claude Stahl - Te Papa

Watch this space as a video of this processing will be made available on Te Papa YouTube channel and will be available for licensing through Te Papa Picture Library.

Te Papa’s YouTube channel
Picture Library 

White shark dissection 28 June 2011, Jean-Claude Stahl - Te Papa

White shark dissection 28 June 2011, Jean-Claude Stahl - Te Papa

Thanks to the team - Andrew Stewart, Matthew Chaplin, Clive Roberts, Jeremy Barker, Tom Schultz, Carl Struthers, Clinton Duffy from DOC.

Becky Masters and Rebecca Loud from Te Papa’s Picture Library.

By Te Papa | Posted in Biodiversity, Fish | Also tagged , | Comments (1)

Dissecting a killer whale 2

18 March 2010 – 1.59pm

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE FOLLOWING IMAGES MAY BE DISTURBING

The dissection of the killer whale finished yesterday.  This killer whale was very young when it stranded and died.  It was given to Te Papa by Te Runanga o Makaawhio and measured just over two metres long. Its tongue had flaps like the pygmy right whale I blogged about a while ago.  The flaps mean that it was still feeding from its mother. Another clue to its age were the fins,  still curled from being inside its mother. 

The killer whale calf's tail fin. © Te Papa, 2010

The scientists took several samples of the whale’s organs for testing for bacteria and infections – these could indicate what caused the whale to strand.  This whale had bruising injuries to its body and head, most probably from being rolled up and down the beach by the waves.

Dr Steven Raverty discusses bruising sites with Dr Ingrid Visser and Anton van Helden. © Te Papa, 2010

Still, Anton was  intrigued by the bruising on the head and one of the Wellington Zoo staff who visited us during the course of the morning was able to hook us up with Massey University in Palmerston North who have a CT scanner.  The scientists have gone up there this morning to find out if the head bleeding was the result of a fracture. 
Anton van Helden points to a blood clot on the whale’s head. © Te Papa, 2010

 Hopefully we’ll get some images from the CT scanner to post on the blog soon.  We are also taking x-rays of the whale’s flippers.

By janekeig | Posted in Whales | Also tagged , , | Comments (9)

Dissecting a killer whale

17 March 2010 – 10.18am

At Te Papa, our scientists practice non-lethal whale research but in New Zealand where there are hundreds of strandings a year, opportunities arise to study animals that have died as a result of stranding.  Of course the best way to study whales is in their natural environment, but these kind of dissections can tell scientists a lot about whales.

Today our scientists dissected a baby killer whale that stranded near Haast in 2007.  Anton van Helden, Te Papa’s marine mammals collection manager worked with international killer whale scientists, Dr Steven Raverty of Canada and Dr Ingrid Visser of New Zealand.

Scientists dissecting the killer whale in Te Papa's necropsy room. © Te Papa, 2010

I’ll be posting a couple more blogs about the findings of the dissection today.  Do check out the link on Ingrid’s name to discover more info about killer whale research.
By janekeig | Posted in Whales | Also tagged , | Comments (1)

Museum science dissections – a new trend?

8 January 2009 – 1.10pm

It seems like New Zealand museums are setting a new trend for staging scientific dissections of big interesting animals and getting the public involved in them online.

It’s a great way to engage visitors with the scientific activities of natural history museums – it takes the behind-the-scenes stuff out into the public arena. And it can be a real boost to public knowledge and understanding about animal biology and conservation.

Today Auckland Museum is holding a dissection of a Great White Shark and you can view it on their website from 2pm. The necropsy, or animal autopsy, will raise public awareness of this magnificent, and vulnerable fish species.

Here at Te Papa we have also had great success with making some recent scientific examinations and dissections available online. In April 2008 a team of scientists thawed and examined a colossal squid, but didn’t dissect it. This is the colossal squid now on display , along with lots of info explaining it’s anatomy. While the team examined the big colossal squid specimen they dissected a smaller, incomplete colossal squid specimen and a giant squid specimen and blogged about it live. The information we got  from dissecting these other big squid specimens was vital to understanding the biology of the colossal squid, and then communicating this in the exhibition.

After the success of the squid investigations we then decided to blog about a dissection of a pygmy right whale in May 2008. Looking at our blog stats we still have heaps of people going to these posts about the pygmy right whale heart and lungs – somewhat strange, but true.  I’m not sure why these posts would be so popular - so if anyone out there knows please tell me!

Then in July 2008 the Melbourne Museum held a public dissection of a giant squid, which you can view here. 

From big molluscs we have now moved on to big fish! It’s great to see these new ways of communicating science in museums being explored and our museum-based scientists taking centre stage -  I’m interested to know what others think about this.

By pamelalovis | Posted in Colossal squid, Pygmy right whale | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments (5)

Pygmy right whale

2 May 2008 – 11.20am

Things are never, ever dull at Te Papa! Next week we have another team of international scientists coming to examine a pygmy right whale specimen. This small whale (Caperea marginata) stranded on 13 May 2007 in the far north of New Zealand.

> Follow the story of this examination blogged live

Pygmy right whales are one of the smallest baleen whales. They are a southern hemisphere species, found most often around New Zealand and southern Australia.

In 1997 Te Papa hosted a major dissection of this species. Recently scientists have become very interested in how pygmy right whales fit into the picture of whale evolution.

Anton van Helden, Te Papa’s Marine Mammal scientist, will be joined by four whale scientists from around the world to dissect the pygmy right whale:

• Dr Catherine Kemper from The South Australian Museum, Adelaide – the world’s leading authority on pygmy right whales.

• Dr Ewan Fordyce from Otago University, Dunedin – an anatomist and palaeontologist who specialises in whale evolution.

• Dr Joy Reidenberg, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York – also an anatomist, who is interested in sound production and breathing in baleen whales.

• Dr Sentiel ‘Butch’ Rommel, University of North Carolina, who took part in the 1997 pygmy right whale dissection. His research interests include mapping the skeleton and associated tissues of whale species.

We hope to bring you some live blog posts – and images – from the pygmy right whale dissection next week.

> Follow the story of this examination blogged live

Special whales talk
Wednesday 7 May, 6.30pm – 8.30pm
The team of international whale scientists will talk about their work and recent discoveries at a special event organised by Friends of Te Papa.

Telstra Clear Centre, Level 3 at Te Papa. Free entry.

LIMITED SEATING – REGISTRATION ESSENTIAL
To reserve a place please phone the Friends office (04) 381 7051 or email friends@tepapa.govt.nz

By pamelalovis | Posted in Colossal squid, Pygmy right whale, Whales | Tohorā | Also tagged , , , | Comments (9)

Lunch break

29 April 2008 – 1.35pm

1.35pm: Not many people are there at the time, because scientists have to eat too… sometimes.

We’ll be back with answers to your questions in about half an hour.

At 3pm, the dissection will have a live commentary over the webcam. We have also added captions to camera 4 and will try to update them as often as possible.

By chrispaulin | Posted in Colossal squid | Also tagged | Comments (3)

Dissection of giant squid

29 April 2008 – 12.40pm

The dissection of the giant squid  – Steve O’Shea and Tsunemi Kubodera using the endoscope to examine the stomach to see if there are any contents before the specimen is cut open.

This is the gill – we are injecting ink into the blood vessels to show them more clearly:

Nidamental gland (arrow):

This specimen is a female, but is not fully mature – the nidamental glands are not fully developed. These glands produce the gelatinous material that holds the egg mass together.

The stomach (above), as with most giant squids caught, is completely empty apart from a few nematode parasites. One theory is that the giant squid are coming into New Zealand waters to breed and do not feed during this period.

The branchial heart can be seen at the center of this next image. The white globular tissue either side are the ovaries, and the large inflated structure at the bottom left is the caecum.

 

 

 

By chrispaulin | Posted in Colossal squid | Also tagged | Comments (12)
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